During a recent Evanston boys soccer game, the referee looked at Wildkits 5-foot-7 senior goalkeeper Gavin Rosengarten and remarked to a few of his teammates: “I thought they made goalies bigger these days.”
At the other end of the field, Maine West had a behemoth in its goal.
Yet, the Wildkits won 4-0 on Sept. 9 in Des Plaines as Rosengarten recorded his fifth shutout in seven games. Rosengarten now has seven shutouts in 12 games for the Wildkits (8-2-2), and Evanston’s undersized, second-year starting goalkeeper has seemingly been nothing but an asset.
Thanks to his fairly prodigious leaping ability, Rosengarten is able to jump among the taller players and grab crosses. As a shot stopper, Rosengarten said he’s forced to play a little differently than a bigger goalkeeper in order to compensate for his lack of size.
“The biggest thing is cutting down the angle,” said Rosengarten, who lives in Evanston. “If you’re taller and your limbs are longer, you can reach more stuff. A shorter keeper has to come out farther to make the goal seem smaller to the forward. But you don’t want to get too far out and get chipped.”
Evanston third-year goalkeeping coach Neal Levin said Rosengarten’s size has never been an issue. In fact, Rosengarten has managed to make it a strength.
“In my three seasons working with him, I can’t say anyone, including myself, has identified an instance where we’ve thought, ‘If only he were taller,'” Levin said.
Levin added: “We work with our strengths, and that can be a lot of things. Size can be one, and obviously that’s not something (Rosengarten) can change. But he’s adapted in other ways. You get keepers who are big and tall, but they’re not as agile, Gavin is agile.”
Rosengarten’s agility, and fearlessness, were on display in his team’s 1-0 home loss to New Trier on Sept. 19. The Trevians repeatedly tried to play through balls to forwards making diagonal runs. Yet, almost every time, there was Rosengarten, charging off his line and beating the forward to the ball.
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The only goal Evanston conceded occurred when a Wildkits midfielder mistakenly played a back pass into space for a Trevians forward.
Rosengarten said one of his main areas of improvement from last season has been his ability to read the game and race off his line in order to smother the ball at a forward’s feet.
“Last year, I was hesitant,” Rosengarten said. “But now, once I make a decision, make up my mind (to come out), I commit to it.”
On multiple occasions, Rosengarten and an attacker have arrived at the ball at about the same time. While the sliding Rosengarten has come away with the save, he’s also gotten an inadvertent knee or shin in the face or the ribs for his troubles.
“That hasn’t stopped him,” Levin said. “He’s aggressive and quick and that has proven beneficial against teams (like New Trier) who play that run all the time.”
Levin said Rosengarten also has the other assets necessary for a top goalkeeper — quick reflexes, good hands, technical skills that make defenders comfortable playing the ball back to him and a willingness to call out instructions to defenders.
Another important characteristic is the ability to forget about disappointment, usually after conceding a goal, in order to focus on making the next save.
Rosengarten faced a test of his mental strength last fall during the postseason when Evanston coach Franz Calixte replaced Rosengarten with then-sophomore Ramin Abraham for consecutive penalty shootouts in the Maine East Sectional semifinals and final.
The decisions, made after Abraham had proven adept at stopping penalties on the sophomore level, did not come as a surprise to Rosengarten. He watched as a backup become the hero in shooutout victories over New Trier and Glenbrook North.
But Rosengarten, called the consummate team player by coaches and teammates alike, did not complain. He simply went out in the next game and did his job.
“It would have been nice to play (in the shootout), but we got the wins and that’s all that mattered,” Rosengarten said. “I understood.”
Evanston senior defender Niko Kapetan said that reaction is consistent with Rosengarten’s humble personality and team-first attitude.
Kapetan said he’s witnessed opposing goalkeepers hurl abuse at their own defenders after a mistake. He’s also known goalkeepers who display a bit of an ego. But Kapetan said Rosengarten is not that kind of player or person.
“Gavin will never lay blame,” Kapetan said. “Off the field, he’s not egotistical. He’s known to be just the nicest guy you’ll meet, if you ask anybody (who knows him) … and I’m not exaggerating.”
Dan Shalin is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter @Pioneer_Press